Distributed Development
A Distributed Development project is a research & development project that is done across many business worksites or locations. It is a form of R&D where the project members may not see each other face to face, but they are all working collaboratively toward the outcome of the project. Often this is done through email, the Internet and other forms of quick long-distance communication.
It is different from outsourcing because all of the organizations are working together on an equal level, instead of one organization subcontracting the work to another.
It also is similar to, but different from, a virtual team because there is a research element.
Characteristics of Distributed Development
Location
People are distributed across locations and work on the same project or product. The reasons for the distribution do not matter, they might include the availability of resources in different locations, closeness to certain clusters, proximity to to customers or cost advanatges. Examples could be the production of an Airbus or Boeing aircraft - those are usually done in multiple locations (though by the same company) and assembled finally in one location.
Collaboration
People might specialize in a distributed development environment, but they actively collaborate together to achieve the common goal. There must be a program lead or project head somewhere, but it is not an environement of an outsourced part of the overall development lifecycle, where people at one location would not know what happens in the other locations. In a distributed environment, project members share IDeaS, information and resources. To get back to the Aircraft example; the Airbus engineers in Hamburg know exactly what their colleagues in Toulouse are doing and they know this well beyond just the interfaces of the pieces they do.
Responsibility & Accountability
Everybody feels responsible for the achievement of the overall project goal. Nobody can succeed without everybody else being successful. This is also different from a typical outsourcing project, where every outsourced function just concentrates on (and gets measured against) the actual goals and tasks of that function. This mandatory set-up makes people think about what the "other side" thinks and makes them collaborate and help each other. Again, Airbus in Hamburg can never be successful if the aircraft does not take off. Even if they produce the best fuselage and wings the world has ever seen - the plane is only a success if it flies when assembled.
In summary, distributed development is the highest form of collaboration in any engineering and R&D environment. It is difficult to achieve, since it requires high management capabilities and an excellent environment for communication and frequent interaction. It further relies on a well thought through organizational setup, a work atmosphere free of political battles and a highly efficient infrastructure. The top management needs to believe in the set-up and put measures in place to reward compliance and be strict with those who do not comply.
Success factors
There are three main success factors for a distributed development project:
- Select and/or recruit the right people.
- Spend some money of face-to-face meetings, specifically initially.
- Build an organizational design that supports working in a distributed development, including the right incentive systems
By doing that, one gets many advantages beyond pure outsourcing or offshoring, namely much higher motivated employees in all parts of the dirstibuted network, higher retention and certainly one gains from the diversity of the network.
The image below tries to explain how the different pieces fit together. There is a distinction between on-shore, near-shore and off shore and all three can be done either outsources (means by another company) or by owns subsidiaries. In all cases there ar edifferent levels of work done outside of the own local BOUNDARIES, ranging from simple service to high-end R&D.
ja:分散開発